Project Title:

Child Care Provider Training: Balancing Work and Family Life

Submitted by:

Connie Barnett
Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences,
Dorchester County
410-228-8800
410-228-3868 (FAX)

Approved by:

Conrad Arnold,
County Extension Director

Introduction/Situation:

Maryland Cooperative Extension Service has been certified to provide continuing education to regulated child care providers in the state since 1994. Each year over 2000 family, center and school-age child care providers receiving training either directly from or sponsored by MCES. Training events occur throughout the year, and in nearly all counties in the state, and in Baltimore City. We provide continuing training on a range of topics geared to the professional needs of child care providers. We offer events at a lower cost than many other training sponsors (which is highly appealing considering the low wages of the family child care provider), presented by highly knowledgeable speakers who know how to effectively reach the audience. Because of these many factors, MCES has become a highly visible player among state providers of training for regulated providers.

In the past year and a half, we have sought to better coordinate our training efforts. Included in these coordination efforts are semi-annual reports of training, a listing a MCES training opportunities on the Internet, development of an evaluation that can be used at all training events to standardize and aggregate data of our training effectiveness, statewide distribution of three newsletters to providers to enhance their professional development, and implementation of educational workshops programs that can be used by all FCS faculty in their training to child care providers. Most recently, we began teaching workshops on infant brain development research and application to providers and parents.

Another workshop program is also being considered for statewide implementation. "Balancing Work and Family Needs for the Family Child Care Provider" is a topic area critical to the stress management, professionalism, and continuity of care for child care providers (Kontos, 1994). Research on the quality of child care has provided sufficient information about what providers can do to manage job-related stress and handle the demands of their families (Deery-Schmitt & Todd, 1995). Presentations of this topic at Extension-sponsored workshops in the last year have resulted in providers feeling more committed to the profession, having a more positive attitude about being a child care provider, and having more interest in attending professional training. Yet, workshops are necessarily sporadic without the development of the content and materials into a format that all Extension Educators can use. This proposal then, seeks to develop a workshop training program for child care providers, to be used by MCES faculty, and marketed to other Extension states.

Deery-Schmitt, D. and Todd, C. (1995). A conceptual model for studying turnover among family child care providers. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 10 121-143.

Kontos, S. (1994). Family day care: Out of the shadows and into the limelight. NAEYC Research Monograph. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Conduct a needs and assets assessment with a random sample of family child care providers in the state to determine content and format for the workshop.

• Develop a workshop for Extension Educators on work and family balance for the family child care provider.
• Train county Family and Consumer Sciences faculty on the workshop and evaluation.
• Market the workshop to other Extension professionals on the Internet, national meetings, and print materials.

Project Plan:

The Dorchester County Extension Educator in Family and Consumer Sciences will work with the Acting State Specialist in Human Development to develop this workshop. The specialist will prepare a background report on family and work-related stress and coping for family child care providers. A needs and assets assessment instrument will be developed and sent to a random sample of 500 regulated family child care providers in the state. Results of the needs assessment will be used to revise and enhance existing workshop materials and content. Workshop format will be determined, and an evaluation will be designed. The workshop will be piloted at two Extension child care provider training events, then revised based upon results of the pilot. At that time, a statewide inservice will be conducted by the FCS educator and the specialist to train county faculty on the workshop.

Summary Budget:

• Total Budget Requested = $990
• Supplies and Materials: Total requested = $990
• Postage to send questionnaires to 500 child care providers (@$.32) = $160
• Postage for returns of questionnaires from 500 providers (@$.32) = $160
• Duplication of questionnaire for 500 providers = $45
• Duplication of workshop materials for Extension Educators: 25 notebook binders @ $3.00 each = $75.00
  material duplication for 25 notebooks @$16.00 each = $400
  
• Purchase of research monograph: "Family Day Care" (1994, S. Kontos) @$6.00 x 25 = $550